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Google might have sent your videos to some random person

2020-02-06

Seems like tech giant and world ruler, Google, has made a little oops as it has warned some users their videos could have been accidentally sent to some random stranger.

It was caused by an issue with Google Takeout, a software service that lets Google Photos users download their data to create another backup or seamlessly switch cloud services. Anyone who requested their data from November 21-25, 2019 may have had their personal videos inadvertently exported to the wrong account.

Google say that a bug has impacted less than 0.01 percent of its photo storage and sharing app users. So, it’s a tiny number… Until you factor in its one billion users… Hang on, that means it could have affected upwards of 10 million people.

Google has since said soz and fixed the issue, and “have conducted an in-depth analysis to help prevent this from ever happening again.” It’s really nice of Google. Would have been even nicer if it had have alerted users when it happened, rather than two months later.

Oh, and beside Google sending your videos off to the wrong person, this error also means the data you've requested through Takeout is incomplete. If this applies to you, Google recommends requesting another copy of your data and deleting the original, incomplete archive.